Velocity and metastable state population distributions of neodymium atoms produced by laser ablation

Wang, H.*; Oba, Hironori  ; Saeki, Morihisa; Miyabe, Masabumi   ; Shibata, Takemasa; Miyatake, Hiroari*; Iimura, Hideki  

Laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy has been employed to characterize the plume produced in nanosecond laser ablation of metallic neodymium. The kinetic-energy distributions of the neutral and ionized atoms in the plume under both vacuum and gas environments have been investigated. The population distribution of metastable levels in the ablated atoms was also derived. The results show some metastable states are more heavily populated than predicted by a Boltzman-type distribution. These investigations provide preliminary data for the design of a new type of resonance photo-ionization laser ion source as well as for hign-resolution laser spectroscopy of refractory elements.